BURSARIES - Ocean of Stories: Intercolonial Networks and Cultural Exchanges around the Indian Ocean (5-7 Feb 2008; U of Western Australia, WA)

POSTGRADUATE & EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS MASTERCLASS

OCEAN OF STORIES: INTERCOLONIAL NETWORKS AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES AROUND THE INDIAN OCEAN
5-7 February 2008
University of Western Australia, PERTH

UTS | CURTIN U | U OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA | MURDOCH U

In association with the Ocean of Stories conference there will be a Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers Masterclass held on the afternoon of Wednesday 6th February 2008. A subsidy of $250 per person towards travel and accommodation costs is available. Please email expressions of interest to Dr Lola Sharon Davidson at Indian.Ocean@uts.edu.au.

This conference follows on from a conference entitled “Culture and Commerce in the Indian Ocean” which was held in Leiden, The Netherlands, 25th – 27th September 2006.

That conference was about cultural and commercial relationships and patterns in the Indian Ocean from pre- to post-colonial times. It had as its aim to bring the interdisciplinary paradigm of Cultural Studies to the Indian Ocean, building on the already substantial work done in Anthropology, History, Geography, International Studies and other social and political disciplines.

These studies have already been connected in significant ways to elaborate the description of Indian Ocean culture. Cultural Studies suggests further avenues for thought and analysis which this workshop will develop and discuss. In particular it will focus on:

* the social circulation of objects, cultural values, stories and languages
* contemporary popular cultures: music, film and other arts
* inter-colonial labour networks
* old and new cosmopolitan subjectivities
* political ecology of the Indian Ocean
* narrative, poetics and cultural value
* environments, ecologies, naturecultures